Police Department looking for grenade launchers and night-vision scopes; no, Cedar Rapids is not Kandahar

Sometimes you can get a feeling we're not in Cedar Rapids anymore.

Such is the case for anyone who takes a look at the latest in Police Department equipment requests – one is for five grenade launchers and one for five night optic observation systems.

Don't panic: This is still Cedar Rapids, not Kabul or Kandahar, Police Capt. Steve O'Konek assures.

O'Konek explained this week that the Police Department is looking to purchase the military-style grenade launchers to fire less-than-lethal canisters of gas, smoke or foam when it needs to defuse a situation so no one gets hurt.

“We are not going to be launching grenades,” O'Konek said.

The launchers, he said, would affix to a police rifle so officers would not have to carry a rifle as well as a second weapon to launch gas or smoke canisters. The Police Department's officers now must haul what O'Konek called a Vietnam War-era “gas gun” with them if they want to, for instance, drive a suspect out of a house.

That's exactly what the department's Special Response Team did two weeks ago at 6524 Park View Ave. when a suspect wanted for first-degree burglary refused to come out of his house.

 “It didn't take him too long to come out,” O'Konek said.

The department also is looking to purchase night-vision scopes that will affix to rifles so the Special Response Team's marksmen can see much better at night.

“Anytime you're involved in an operation that happens at night, your risk significantly increases because the visibility is decreased,” O'Konek said.

The captain said technology that the military began employing some years ago in the Gulf War now is making its way into the private sector and into the hands of law enforcement agencies.

“Some of the technology the military has used has proven to be very successful and great tools for us,” O'Konek said. “Anytime we can avert a confrontation with somebody, we'd just as soon do that.”